For Fall Equinox, I decided to visit the Sandy Delta Park, near Portland. I’ve been there before, but it had been a while and I wanted to honor the spirit of the Columbia, while also doing my ritual for the equinox. However I was prompted to get creative with my approach to doing the ritual and thought I would share what I came up with. I ultimately decided to do a walking ritual, where I called in the sphere and the circle while walking the park.
How to Become Resilient in Magic and Life part 1
I discuss how to become resilient in magic and life and share one of the core skills that you need to draw upon in order to be resilient in the face of changes that inevitably occur in life.
Researching Mythology to create magical workings
One of the projects I’ve lately been working on has involved doing research into the Mesopotamian mythos of Ishtar and Gilgamesh. I’m currently reading the Penguin Version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. I’m not just reading the myths, but also the notes and information that the translator has shared because it can be equally valuable in terms of informing the translation but also the work around finding this information. The history is often quite fascinating and provides valuable context. I’m doing all this research because I want to create magical workings around tis mythos, but even though I already have a general knowledge of the mythos, I find it useful to do a deep dive to establish a strong foundation from which to build magical workings off of.
Timing and Magic Part 2: Further thoughts on when to do magic
I explore the significance of planetary hours in magic and share an experiment I’m currently engaged in and what some of my thoughts are on the experiment and how its allowing me to explore my process of magic from a different perspective.
When should you do magic? An exploration of timing in magic
Is there an optimal time to do magic for a given type of magical operation? I share some thoughts on timing in magic and why a given day or hour isn’t necessarily as important as one might think as well as how to factor in how to bring in specific influences within your magical working.
Walking with Elemental Spirits is now available!
I started practicing magic when I was 16 and the very first magical discipline and practice I learned was elemental magic. Over the last 29 years I've continued to practice elemental magic and work with elemental spirits.
My latest book Walking with Elemental Spirits is a dissemination of my years of practice and all the experiences I've accumulated along the way.
But it's also more than that.
It's the evolution of elemental magic from the classic model of the 5 elements Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Quintessence into a modernized approach that explores and integrates other elements outside the classic Five elements.
Elements such as gravity, magnetism, time, and space and much, much more.
And I don't just stop there. Within this book you'll find a variety of elemental magic practices and ways to work with the elemental spirits.
The elemental spirits can be potent allies to work with and in this book you’ll learn how the practical magic skills that you can use to forge strong relationships with the elemental spirits that allow you to work with them as allies. In this book you will also learn the following:
The classic Hermetic and Taoist systems of the 5 elements, and my modernized system of elemental magic.
How to connect with elemental spirits using evocation portals and experiential embodiment
How to do internal work and health magic with the elemental spirits.
How to work with the elemental spirits to get practical results
and much more!
If you’re ready to learn a new approach to elemental magic, this book will teach you how to work with the elemental spirits and use elemental magic to get results that transform your life.
Walking with Elemental Spirits is available in E-book, paperback, and hardback.
This is a book I've waited a long time to write, but its time is finally here, and with it, the evolution of elemental magic as we know it.
How I'm applying Essentialism to my life
I have used Essentialism to help me transform the way I live my life. I share some of the ways I’ve been applying essentialism to my life and how this is translating over to my spiritual and magical practices. I also share why essentialism has really empowered me to let go of needless complexity in my life.
Manifestation is the realization of the imaginal
When we manifest the imagination into reality we turn the seed of potential into a new identity for ourselves and reality. I explain what this means and why it can change your approach to magic when you approach manifestation from your identity instead of from your scarcity.
Sign up for From Imagination to Manifestation:
How justification and rationalization can get in the way of magical work
One of the books I’ve been reading lately is Mistakes were Made (but not by me) (affiliate link). It’s been a hard book to read because what it naturally causes a reader to face is how they have justified their own mistakes in order to avoid taking responsibility for them. While I’d like to believe that I do take responsibility for my choices, I’ll admit that reading this book did cause me to examine some of my perceptions and beliefs about situations and recognize how I had justified my own behavior or painted other people in a specific light to justify my choices. Needless to say, it made me squirm a bit.
As I continued reading the book I also considered how such justifications can show up in magical work. While I have written and shared my own failures with magic with a fair amount of candor, I still revisited various workings as a result of reading this book and asked myself if I ever justified why a working failed or succeeded. It was a good exercise to take on, because it required a willingness to put aside whatever justifications I had applied to a situation and ask myself if there was anything else that could have contributed to the situation.
Imagination as the seed of reality
Imagination is where reality begins. It is the seed of potential and the promise of manifestation and I share why your imagination can be one of your most potent magical tools, as well as how to work it in to your magical practice.
Sign up for From Imagination to Manifestation: https://magical-experiments.teachable.com/p/from-imagination-to-manifestation
Working with genius spirit of the land
Recently my magical partner and I visited Portugal. One of the many amazing places we visited was Monsanto, Portugal, which is a village that is built around the natural boulders. The buildings actually incorporate the boulders into the building and the villagers take pride in having a boulder as part of their home or business. I thought that was really fascinating because it struck me that they had made an intentional choice to live with the boulders and make them part of their lives.
When we explored the mountain around the village, my partner and I looked for a place to do some magic. The picture above, of a path between a couple boulders is near where we found such a space, but finding that space required us to listen to the genius of the land, the spirit that inhabits and defines the identity of that mountain. When we first scouted for a place to work magic, we found an area that seemed right and we went back and got our ritual gear, but our search for the right space was just beginning.
Long Term Thinking and Planning in Magic and Life
Are you applying a long term perspective to your magic and life or are you getting caught up in wanting instantaneous results? I share why its better to cultivate a long term perspective to your magical work and life and also share what can happen when you don’t apply this awareness to your life.
The connection between Spirits and the Imagination
I share why your imagination is one of the most powerful means for connecting with spirits and also explore the cultural baggage around the imagination and how this keeps you from connecting with spirits. I also discuss how to determine if a spirit has connected with you.
How to extend your senses in spirit work
Lately I’ve been doing some experimenting with how to extend the senses in spirit work. This experimentation has come about for a few reasons. I’m taking a course on scrying from Harper Feist, as well as doing more spirit work and because I’m teaching a course on my patreon about working with the psychic senses for the purposes of connecting with spirits. All of these things have been helpful for me, in terms of exploring the kind of spirit work I want to do, but also in terms of exploring how to better apply my sensorial awareness to the spirit work.
In the West, we are used to thinking of the senses in terms of sight, sound, touch, smell, and hearing, but these broad categories don’t encompass the subtleties of our sensorial awareness. These subtleties can be worked with in spirit work to lead us to a deeper connection with the spirits we’re working with. At the same time any sensorial awareness is to some degree subjective because its our senses making us aware of something. At the same time, our senses are limited and there’s a lot we don’t experience which is nonetheless happening around and to us.
Cursing as a form of healing
I discuss how cursing can be a form of healing and why if we look at it from that perspective it can help us reach a state of healthier equilibrium within ourselves because we're not holding onto feelings and experiences that would otherwise traumatize us.
Can social media become an expression of magical workings
When I recently asked my Facebook group what questions they had about social media magic, because of a book I’m getting ready to write on the topic, it didn’t surprise me that some of the questions I received were skeptical ones that questioned if social media could even be used as a medium for magical work. I understand why that question is asked, because the prevalent image and associations of magic are all based around traditional perspectives of how magic ought to work, with traditional tools that don’t really touch on modern technology and using it for magical purposes.
Yet nonetheless modern technology has been used in conjunction with magic and is being used with magical workings in order to get results, by myself and many other people, because the simple fact is magic isn’t limited to a specific toolset or way of doing things. Those limitations are human imposed and say more about how we limit our understanding of magic and how it can be practiced and what can be done with it. If we recognize the limitation as self-imposed then we can let go of it and start exploring how to adapt social media or anything else toward magical work.
Magical Experiments Podcast: The Luciferian Current with Anima Noira
In this episode of magical experiments podcast, I discuss the luciferian current with Anima Noira. We discuss spirit work and how to work with Lucifer as well as discussing love spells and magical workings and when one should or shouldn’t employ magic for results driven purpose as well as what its like to do magic for the purposes of internal work.
My magical name has been variously translated as “Breath of Darkness”, “Dark Life Force” “Animating Darkness” or “Dark Fire”. Anima Noira is an occult writer, artist, videographer, and host of the Devil’s Disciples talk show. She has done the Devil’s Work as a model, witch, and priestess. She publishes her essays on the occult on her website, Inner Ignition.
What I am re-learning about creating magical tools
Over the years I’ve created some magical tools for myself. I first started creating magical tools as a teenager, first starting out with creating specific staffs and wands, and then in my early twenties exploring how to meld art and magic together to create magical tools with the paintings I created. However of late, I’ve been inspired to explore the creation of magical tools in further depth. Some of this inspiration has come about because of working with my magical partner, and some of it came about because of a recent interview I did on the Random Illusions podcast and some of it has been inspired by Alison Chicosky’s work on practical occult.
One of the challenges I’ve had with creating magical tools is not feeling like I have the requisite skills to do so, but I realized that’s a mental block on my part so I’ve begun challenging that mental block by considering what magical tools I could actually create. For the moment, I am creating those tools for myself, but I’ll probably make those tools for other people down the line.
Can you work magic with modern technology?
Can modern technology and magic mix? I share my own thoughts on how modern technology and magic can mix and why its important to look at how magic and technology can be applied together for effective magical work.
Breaking out of the 5 Element model: A different approach to elemental magic
I’m currently writing Walking with Elemental Spirits, which is a book that explores my system for elemental magic. One of the central arguments of that book is that the 5 element model of earth, water, fire, air, and quintessence is a bit outdated. It has worked well as a model, but its evident that there are more elements than just the aforementioned elements. Why are we holding onto an outmoded model that was used to describe reality a long time ago, as a taxonomic means of categorizing the experiences of the world? I’ll be bold and just say we hold on to such models because we are taught that something which is old is typically considered better and if it works why change it.
I don’t agree with this sentiment. While I think the 5 element model is a great foundational tool, I also think that when we hold onto an old model and never question it we’re missing out on an opportunity to evolve magically, as well as to evolve the overall discipline of magic. I’ve been practicing elemental magic since I first started practicing magic, and for many years I did rely upon the 5 element model because it was what was available. Yet being the magical experimenter that I am, I inevitably ended up questioning it.